Gonna Learn How To Fly - Part1

A new school years brings a lot of changes to the School Of The Arts. Julie has decided not to return to school, as she got married during the summer break and has left New York. Lots of  new student start at the school including Chris and Holly who are finding it tough to fit in. A new vice principle joins the school in the shape of strict authoritarian Quentin Morloch. However the biggest change is for Bruno when he decides he has to leave the school so he could support himself after his father dies very suddenly.  

I completely love this episode and everything seemed so much brighter in this season, not just because I could now see the show in colour, (previously I'd only watched the show on a black and white portable TV) it seemed like the producers and writers were trying very hard to totally revamp the show after it was cancelled by NBC and came up with some great ideas. The new characters, different hairstyles and clothes gave the show a whole new feel.

This was the first episode I was able to record on our new video recorder and the first I could watch again after it was broadcast. The day after this episode was shown I was still totally excited about the show being back that I refused to go to school and eventually my Mum had to give in and she gave me a note the following day to say I was sick! 

I was 16, I stayed at home alone and just watched this episode over and over again all day and loved it. As soon as Shorofsky shouted “Martelli” and the credits rolled it was rewind and watch it all again. So out of all the episodes I have probably seen this one the most and know it so well. I know the dialogue; can hum the background music and pretty much wrote most of this review from memory. Although I was more than happy to re-watch another time for this quest of watching and reviewing all the episodes.

This episode works so well for me on so many different levels. Even the title of the episode is inspired, taking a line from the theme song that reflects the changes in our favourite characters lives. It’s so much better than some of the one word titles like “Feelings” or“Relationships”.

This episode is an excellent introduction to the 3 new cast members. All of them cause conflict for our existing characters and really shake the show up. Leroy and Chris are dance rivals. Doris is jealous of Holly and it was so interesting to hear that Valerie really was jealous of Cynthia at that time and didn't want to be friends with her but now they have become very good friends. I didn't know that at the time and love hearing the behind the scenes stuff. I’d so love season 3 to be out on DVD with commentaries so we could find out more! Although that probably isn't ever going to happen! 

Also with Morloch we finally have some one in charge of the school and that adds so much more realism to the show rather than the other teachers taking charge of things all the time. The fact that Morloch isn't really interested in the arts and doesn't really want to be at that school causes the biggest conflicts to students and teachers alike. His scene with Sherwood really sets the tone for how his character will be and I love it. All this conflict opens the show up to so many more and different story lines and created a dynamic that the show really needed.

I really like Holly’s speech as seeing the school as a family and she wants to be part of it.

Even though the show introduces the new characters the emphasis is really on our existing cast. Although David and Julie are missing and no mention is made of David. I already knew that Morgan was only guest starring in this season so I didn't worry too much about his absence. I also knew Lori had left the show and personally think that was a good thing as the writers really struggled with Julie’s character in season 2. I was pleased that they actually mentioned Julie and gave quite a bit of air time to writing her out, instead of never mentioning her again. 

However, I do have issues with the story line the writers came up with for Julie. In the U.K. our summer break is 6 weeks so for Julie to have gone away to a scholarship, met someone, fallen in love and got married all in that time frame didn't seem plausible at all. Even if the American school holidays are longer it was still very out of character for Julie. I'm not sure why she couldn't have just moved because she got a scholarship to a prestigious music school or something and leave it at that. Judy Farrell makes her final appearance as Julie’s Mother in this episode.

The changes continue with Carmine Caridi’s character of Bruno’s father being written out. This has to be one of the saddest story lines for the show. It also proves how killing off a character that we have an emotional attachment to is so much more powerful than the deaths they had to help the story lines in season 2. 

Here the death has a huge impact and means big changes for Bruno and the story line is totally worthy of the show’s only ever cliff hanger. Shorofsky trying to keep Bruno at school, Bruno’s final walk from the music room to the auditorium and the kid’s tribute to Bruno are all so touching and I love Sherwood wiping the tears from her eyes. It all had me in tears too. 

This episode has it all, the humour, the emotion of Bruno's dad dying and Bruno having to leave the school and the drama of what will happen next. Also some great music and I love both “Once in Awhile” and “What Would We Ever Do Without You”. It was so good to hear Val, Erica, Carlo and Lee singing and to discover the songs were better than ever. 

I love the flashback scenes of Bruno’s Dad that we see during “Once In Awhile” it’s a nice tribute to him. A lot of them take place on the real streets of New York and that’s always nice to see. Presumably there were budget cuts this year because there is very little real outside location work in the episodes this season.

With the music so good I was always disappointed that the BBC/RCA stopped releasing albums of the music from the shows. I know the last 2 albums hadn't sold that well but the season 3 songs, with the right promotion could have but the Kids back at the top of the charts.

As much as I like this episode I do have a couple of comments / queries:

- Sherwood tells the kids “Miss Grant is running the dance auditions now” but who was running them before? Right from the very first episode of the first season Lydia has been one of the people who auditioned students.

 - In the auditorium when Leroy and Danny are getting the next set of  dancers for Lydia ,What is Danny counting? Is he scoring the girls? He says “5, 7, 11” I have to say I've never understood that part.

- Bruno thanks Mrs Berg for opening the school on a Saturday but why did he need Mrs Berg to open it anyway? Why didn't he just use the key Shorofsky gave him(which we found out about in season 2's "Love Is The Question")  to clear out his locker when no one was there? Why does Mrs Berg have a key anyway she is only the secretary, do all the staff have  keys?

- The new students are supposed to be younger than the existing cast, as Coco remarks “look at how young they are” but Chris joins the advance dance class with   Coco and Leroy and Holly is in singing classes with Doris. Shouldn't they be in new classes with the rest of the new students? 

- There is a clip of Holly and Chris in the end titles in what looks like the cafeteria (top right in the episode pictures below) but no such scene exists in the episode. I  wonder  if there were out takes to this episode.

Anyway an excellent start to the  season.

Original  air date in U.S.A 15th October 1983

Original  air date  in U.K. 15th February 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original air date in The Netherlands  07th January 1984

Original air date in Australia 17th February 1984 

Original air date in Italy 17th  March 1985

Original air date in Belgium  07th April 1988  

Original  air date in France 10th September 1988